Removing Punctuation and Symbols

Unwanted punctuation and symbols can be annoying. Let’s remove them with Stringr

##### Creating Sample Data #####
Name <- as.character(c("Abb{ey", "B[ri]an", "Co.n}nie", "Dan", "Et#h!an", "Fr!ida"))
GPA <- c(3.0, 2.8, 2.1, 4.0, NA, 3.0)
Grade <- c(3, 4, NA, NA, 6, 9)
State <- c("AL", NA, NA, NA, "CA", "VA")
Credit_Score <- sample(550:750,6)
ID <- sample(100:200,6)

data <- data.frame(Name, GPA, Grade, State, Credit_Score, ID, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

##### Load Library #####
library(stringr)

##### Creating Sample Data #####

Name <- as.character(c("Abb{ey", "B[ri]an", "Co.n}nie", "Dan", "Et#h!an", "Fr!ida"))

GPA <- c(3.0, 2.8, 2.1, 4.0, NA, 3.0)

Grade <- c(3, 4, NA, NA, 6, 9)

State <- c("AL", NA, NA, NA, "CA", "VA")

Credit_Score <- sample(550:750,6)

ID <- sample(100:200,6)

data <- data.frame(Name, GPA, Grade, State, Credit_Score, ID, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

##### Load Library #####

library(stringr)

We can use str_replace() or str_replace_all() to replace unwanted symbols depending on the situation.

str_replace

##### str_replace() #####
data$Name <- str_replace(data$Name, "[:punct:]","")
data

##### str_replace() #####

data$Name <- str_replace(data$Name, "[:punct:]","")

data

> data
     Name GPA Grade State Credit_Score  ID
1   Abbey 3.0     3    AL          617 144
2  Bri]an 2.8     4  <NA>          604 142
3 Con}nie 2.1    NA  <NA>          739 164
4     Dan 4.0    NA  <NA>          608 140
5  Eth!an  NA     6    CA          582 137
6   Frida 3.0     9    VA          664 175

> data

Name GPA Grade State Credit_Score ID

1 Abbey 3.0 3 AL 617 144

2 Bri]an 2.8 4 <NA> 604 142

3 Con}nie 2.1 NA <NA> 739 164

4 Dan 4.0 NA <NA> 608 140

5 Eth!an NA 6 CA 582 137

6 Frida 3.0 9 VA 664 175

str_replace() will only work on the first encounter with the symbols. To get rid of all symbols regardless of the number of an encounter, we need str_replace_all() .

str_replace_all

Let’s recreate the data frame again.

data <- data.frame(Name, GPA, Grade, State, Credit_Score, ID, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

1	data <- data.frame(Name, GPA, Grade, State, Credit_Score, ID, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

Then we will use str_replace_all() .

##### str_replace_all() #####
data$Name <- str_replace_all(data$Name, "[:punct:]","")
data

##### str_replace_all() #####

data$Name <- str_replace_all(data$Name, "[:punct:]","")

data

> data
    Name GPA Grade State Credit_Score  ID
1  Abbey 3.0     3    AL          617 144
2  Brian 2.8     4  <NA>          604 142
3 Connie 2.1    NA  <NA>          739 164
4    Dan 4.0    NA  <NA>          608 140
5  Ethan  NA     6    CA          582 137
6  Frida 3.0     9    VA          664 175

> data

Name GPA Grade State Credit_Score ID

1 Abbey 3.0 3 AL 617 144

2 Brian 2.8 4 <NA> 604 142

3 Connie 2.1 NA <NA> 739 164

4 Dan 4.0 NA <NA> 608 140

5 Ethan NA 6 CA 582 137

6 Frida 3.0 9 VA 664 175